9 Reasons Why You Should Start Reading More

I have so many reasons as to why I love books, and what’s so good about reading them. I could go on for hours and hours.

Put me in a bookstore and I’ll spend all my money. Put me in a library, I won’t want to leave. Recommend me a book and I’ll find a way to read it ASAP. I get so much enjoyment out of books!

I wanted to make a list of why I think reading books is great, and the benefits of reading. There are quite a few people I know that don’t like reading much or don’t see the point in it, so I thought I’d share why I think reading is actually a good thing, and why you should pick up that book that’s been sitting on your shelf for 2 years untouched, unloved. Poor soul. Books have feelings too y’know.

Entertainment
I think this is probably the most obvious reason that you would read a book. It’s also pretty cheap – you don’t need to go out anywhere and pay entry, most books are like 20-30AUD or even as low as 5 on special, and there’s always so many! Plus, you can read them over and over again, like your watching your favourite movie or tv show – but better! Better, because you can use your own imagination to develop images of the characters, and the worlds described. Which takes me to my second point.

Increases Your Imagination
They say the sky is the limit, but I say books can take it higher. The stories you extract from your books expand your imaginary universe through their descriptive worlds, gallant characters and mesmerising tales. It keeps you alive and has you feeling those feels you may have never felt before, or can even relate to. It’s like conversing with a friend. It understands you, and you understand it, all thanks to the parts in your brain that create imagination.

Expands Your Vocab
As long as you expand your reading, you will find yourself discovering a whole new part of language. You may think you’re fluent in English, but are you really? I mean, there’s so many words in the english language that hardly even get used! Reading old classics is great because you get an idea of how people used to communicate and words you’d use for such heightened situations that you generally wouldn’t use in the modern world.

Enhances Your Communication Skills
This would go for talking AND writing. As I will mention in the memory point of this post, reading allows you to think more, letting you take in the way characters communicate in a book, and if you read a variety of different books, it expands your understanding even more.

Betters Your Focus
Reading requires time and focus to take in what the words on the page are broadcasting. When you do this for longer periods of time or even just more often, you’ll find yourself focusing more on the book than what your surroundings are. I did! I can now read in a noisy train compartment! With the ability to switch focus from accidentally listening in on loud conversations, to your book. Don’t know how I did that though, I’ll get back to you on that. Might just be my own superpower.

Helps Increase Your Memory!
A lot of good books make reference back to things mentioned in the beginning of the book or parts of the story. This helps increase memory because it requires you to remember those scenes to understand the reference.

Self Education!
They say knowledge is power. I say so too. Books, have so much knowledge it’s incredible. Of course in obvious scenarios we extract all our knowledge from books. Textbooks, novels, religious texts – that’s how we know things happen, and how we pass on our knowledge to others. Its how we communicate our ideas and discoveries.

Takes Your Mind Off Things and Reduces Stress
There is so much research that shows reading helps reduce stress just after taking in a few pages of a book. I believe it’s because it requires you to focus, gaining your attention to understand the text. It’s a great distraction. Feeling down? Pick up and read your favourite book. Angry at someone? Read a book then come back and re-evaluate. The fact that it helps calm you down also helps you to comprehend a situation with a clearer mind.

Mental Stimulation!
Creativity, memory, focus, and communication would all fall under this. But so does problem solving! Reading allows you to experience situations from the characters’ point of views, and there fore allow you to see ways in which problem solving can occur. It increases your analytical skills because it memorises situations that are similar to what yours are that you come across and allow you to pick up that skill that you learnt and use it to your advantage.

What do you guys think? Are you a regular reader? Do you agree with these points?

I hope that this post was helpful, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. 🙂